564 MEDICINE-MEN OK THE APACHE. 



a feast during the month of August. 1 The Brahman &quot;about the age of 

 seven or nine ... is invested with the triple cord, and a badge 

 which hangs from his left shoulder. 2 



The Upavita or sacred cord, wound round the shoulders of the Brah- 

 mans, is mentioned in the Hibbert Lectures on the Origin and Growth 

 of Keligiou. &quot; Primarily, the sacred cord was the distinguishing mark of 

 caste among the Aryan inhabitants. It consisted for the Brahrnans of 

 three cotton threads; for the Kshatriyas or warriors of three hempen 

 threads; and for the Vaisyas or artisans and tradesmen of woollen 

 threads.&quot; 3 



&quot;All coiling roots and fantastic shrubs represent the serpent and are 

 recognized as such all over India. In Bengal we find at the present 

 day the fantastically growing Euphorbia antiquorum regularly wor 

 shipped, as the representative of the serpent god. The sacred thread, 

 worn alike by Hindoo and Zoroastrian, is the symbol of that old faith; 

 the Brahman twines it round his body and occasionally around the neck 



of the sacred bull, the Lingam, and its altar With the 



orthodox, the serpent thread should reach down to its closely allied 

 faith, although this Ophite thread idea is now no more known to Hin 

 doos than the origin of arks, altars, candles, spires, and our church 

 fleur-de-lis to Jews and Christians.&quot; 4 



General Forlong ulludee to the thigh as the symbol of phallic worship. &quot;The ser 

 pent on head denoted Holiness, Wisdom, and Power, as it docs when placed on gods 

 and great ones of the East still ; but the Hindoo and /oroastrian very early adopted 

 a symbolic thread instead of the ophite deity, and the throwing of this over the 

 head is also a very sucred rite, which consecrates the man-child to his (iod; this I 

 should perhaps have earlier described, and will do so now. The adoption of the 

 Poita or sacred thread, called also the Xenar, and from the most ancient pre-historic 

 times by these two great Bactio- Aryan families, points to a period when both had 

 the same faith, and that faith the Serpent. The Investiture is the Confirmation 

 or second birth of the Hindoo boy; until which he can not, of course, be married. 

 After the worship of the heavenly stone the Saligrama, the youth or child takes a 

 branch of the Vilwa tree in his right hand, and a mystic cloth-bag in the left, when 

 a I oita is formed of three fibres of the Sooroo tree (for the first cord must always 

 be made of the (jenuine living Jibrei of an orthodox tree), and this is hung to the boy s 

 left shoulder; he then raises the Vilwa branch over his right shoulder, and so stands 

 for some time, a comi/lete figure of the old faiths in Tree and Serpent, until the priest 

 offers up various prayers and incantations to Soorya, Savitri or Sot, the Eternal God. 

 The Sooroo-Poita is then removed as not durable enough, and the permanent thread 

 is put over the neck. It also is formed of three threads, each 96 cubits or 48 yards 

 long, folded and twisted together until only so long that, when thrown over the 

 left shoulder, it extends half-way down the right thigh, or a little less; for the ob 

 ject appears to be to unite the Caput, Sol, or Seat of intellect with that of passion, 

 and so form a perfect man. 



All Parsis wear the sacred thread of serpent and phallic extraction, and the in 

 vestiture of this is a solemn and essential rite with both sects [i. e., the Hindus and 



1 Picart, Ceremonies et Cofttumes, etc., vol. 6, pt. 2, p. 99. 



2 Maltc Brun, Univ. Geog., vol. 2, lib. 50, p. 235, Philadelphia, 1832. 



3 Dr. .1. L. Angus t Von Eye, The history of culture, in Iconographic Encyc., Philadelphia, 186, vol. 2, 

 p. 169. 



4 Furlong. Rivers ol Life, vol. 1, p. 120. 

 Ibid., pp. 240-241. 



